KEN Macintosh is considering a bid for the Scottish Labour leadership, sources close to the Eastwood MSP have confirmed.
News of a possible challenge emerged as the party continued to consider its future in the wake of its crushing election defeat at the hands of the SNP.
Stephen Kinnock, the newly elected MP for Aberavon and son of former Labour leader Neil, now Lord, Kinnock said there was "potentially a case" for separating the Scottish and UK parties.
The Welsh MP also proposed a new federal set-up for the UK, if it was backed in a referendum.
Scottish Labour is preparing to choose its sixth leader in eight years after Jim Murphy announced on Saturday he was stepping down.
Deputy leader Kezia Dugdale will become acting leader when Mr Murphy leaves his post next month and is odds-on favourite to take the job permanently.
If she is challenged, the party will vote to chose Mr Murphy's successor over the summer.
A friend of Mr Macintosh, 53, said he would want to change Scottish Labour's "angry" tone and reassert the party's values, with campaigning focused on bread and butter issues such as improving health care and job prospects.
The former TV journalist finished second to Johann Lamont in Scottish Labour's 2011 leadership contest, claiming 40 per cent of the vote to her 52 per cent.
He was the most popular choice among ordinary party members in the contest, but Ms Lamont won more support among parliamentarians and affiliated union members under the party's electoral college system.
Reflecting on Labour's election defeat, Mr Kinnock said: "We need to look very seriously at federalising the United Kingdom.
"We can't just carry on with the sticking-plaster approach, we need a modern constitution that sets out very clearly where the English regions sit vis-a-vis Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a very clear definition of the House of Lords, a very clear separation of powers, so that we take decision-making as closely as possible to the people across the UK."
He suggested a new federal set-up be discussed during a year-long national conversation before being tested in a referendum.
He added: "I think there is potentially a case for reconstituting the Scottish Labour party, maybe even calling it the Scottish Democratic Labour party."
He said a separate Scots party should keep the word Labour in its name but said colleagues should consider "some kind of radical rethinking and rebranding".
He said changes must happen within a "strong and cohesive union".
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